The Great Chase
by Meg Kake
Summary: If you owe a rediculous sum of money, you rob everyone you meet blind until you can pay your debt off, right? Well that's Jack Spicer's way of thinking anyway. Rated T for swearing and... it's an AU. Just so you all don't get too confused.
1. Ready, Set, Go!

A/N: Hi! I'm back with another story, and this one should prove to be… interesting… I just thought it would be interesting to put my favorite buddy ever (Jack) in a very high stress situation. I love watching him writhe in his own mistakes. So I thought a world wide chase would be kinda neat. He'll meet many people along the way (like some Xiaolin Monks perhaps) and make butt loads of friends and even more enemies. Enjoy!

--- PROLOGUE---

Dear Journal,

It was sort of rainy today, and I'm guessing it's going to do the same tomorrow. Yeah, I got myself into a little bit of trouble, but I doubt it's nothing an evil boy genius can't handle.

Jack

--

All day long, his house phone had been ringing off the hook. For the most part Jack would just ignore the incoming calls, but soon the person on the other end of the line began to leave threatening messages, leaving the boy no choice but to call the man back.

With only a little resistance, he managed to pull himself away from his work bench and over to the phone. Jack searched out the guy's number on his caller ID and soon found himself waiting impatiently for him to pick up. He knew he was in the right, he knew he shouldn't have to be dealing with this right now, and he knew he didn't want to be.

After waiting for barely three rings, the phone was snatched up from the other side. The voice that seeped into Jack's ears was cold and angry. "I see you've finally grown a spine and called me back, Spicer."

Usually Jack was timid around CY, and with good reason, but today he knew he had to be strong. "Oh, hey Chase," he practically chirped while subconsciously quaking in his black leather boots.

"The money, Jack. Where's that money?" Now more than ever, Chase was coming off a tad bit more than irritable.

There were two things Jack could have said to Chase at this point. He could tell him the truth which entailed confessing his feelings about this whole situation and fessing up to not having that type of money on him, or he could lie through his teeth and find some way to weasel out of it later on. Jack chose the latter of the two. "CY, oh CY. Of course I have the money. What kind of person do you take me for?" Jack laughed nervously while busying himself with a stray string dangling from his coat's sleeve. After some silence provided by Chase as an answer, Jack went on, "never mind. I can get you the money by…"he pondered for a moment's time and then carried on, "does tomorrow around supper time sound good to you?"

Chase knew he could always manipulate Jack into setting the time to whatever he personally fancied, but for some reason beyond him, he didn't feel the need to bother this time around. So he agreed to the arrangement and hung up with little more than a single threat, "if you don't get that money to me, I _will_ hunt you down… and I'll _find_ you."

A strange lump formed in Jack's throat as he hung the phone up on its receiver. But like many things in life, it quickly passed as he began to formulate a plan of some sort in his dark, twisted, and not to mention desperate mind. It was true, he knew that Chase would chase him down relentlessly until he got what he wanted from him… I mean, Come _on_ it's in his _name_ for God's sake! But what if it took CY longer than he had anticipated to catch up with Jack? What if it took CY so long, it ended up biding enough time for Jack to get all the money he owed together? _What if the chase took so long that CY just gave up the hunt?_

That was it! Jack would draw out the chase so long; CY would _have_ to give up. It was ideas like these that proved to Jack that he really _was_ an Evil Boy Genius. But this meant there was no time to be wasted. He would need to gather up his things as quickly as possible, grab as much cash as he could carry, and jet outta China first thing in the morning. The chase was on, and as of tomorrow, Jack would be in the lead.

xxxxxxx

so that was it for Ch 1,I know, it was a shorty, but trust me... the rest wont be like that. so you got it easy this time around, next time you won't be so lucky. Umm, review if you like!


	2. Make my Day, Monk

A/N: So here's chap. Two. BEFORE YOU READ you should probably know that this story is set before all the Monks moved in together at the temple. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THIS, THE STORY COULD PROVE TO BE CONFUSING! Thankyou and enjoy!

--

Dear Journal,

I hate waking up early. The sun's never out and it's still cold… plus the grass is still covered with dew so it ruins my black leather boots. Hopefully this first day of the chase will be the only day I will have to wake up at the crack of Dawn.

Jack

--

When he initially set his alarm clock the night before, Jack hadn't realized just how early 5 AM could really be. It went off buzzing and beeping some rip off tune; obviously taken from the Nightmare Before Christmas, and it was probably one of the most painful events Jack had ever been faced with in his teenage life. So, like any other kid who was faced with a threat to his or her sleepy time, he threw the clock across the room while managing to break a very nice lamp in the process. As the alarm's annoying blips of a wake up call flickered and crackled out, Jack found it more than easy to ease himself back to sleep for at least another 3 hours.

It was closer to eight when his lazy body decided to drag itself from his bed and over the closet to grab a change of clothes. Most people would scowl at his array of outfits. They all involved the colors black or red, or both. Today seemed as though it might turn out to be a good day, so he adorned his favorite T-shirt, a red Frankenstein sleeveless, and his usual slacks and boots. "Well, I guess I should pack the rest of these into a duffle bag or something." Jack sighed in exasperation as he lazily began to shove away all his clothes into an army looking Kaki duffle. "At least they're all clean."

Not too long after, Jack found himself heading down from his room and over to breakfast. There, he found his mother busily slaving away over a hot stove. It smelled like she was frying up some pancakes, and though Jack realized he was in a bit of a hurry to get out, he couldn't resist the allure of his mom's homemade cooking. So, before he left for his extensive game of tag with CY, he pulled up a seat to the kitchen table and sat waiting patiently for his mom to serve him. As he sat there, he ran through a check list of all the things he would need to bring, in his head. "OK, I got my clothes, cash for gas and lodging, my Mp3 player and its charger, shampoo and conditioner… no, no, wait. I don't want any conditioner… it makes me break out. So what else is there? Oh, my eyeliner, tooth paste and brush… and a bar of soap so I don't smell like ass."

Jack probably could have gone on with his ever growing list of needs and wants for the trip, but his mom came to the table, setting down two plates; one for her son and one for herself. As she passed the syrup to Jack she smiled and asked, "So, what are your plans for today, Jacky?" She beamed while waiting for her perfect son to finish his bite of food and answer.

This was a problem. What would Jack tell his mom? _Oh, I'm running away from a dangerous criminal and master of evil because I owe him a ridiculous amount of money?_ Yeah, that might work… _maybe. _He thought fast, while making sure to chew his food very, very slow to buy him time. "Oh… actually, dad called last night and… uhh… asked me to come up and visit him at his house in Hong Kong." That was perfect, his mom would never call her ex-husband, so he could be anywhere he wanted and she wouldn't be the wiser.

"Oh, _that man_. Well honey, if you ever want to leave his house early, just go ahead and please do so. You know how much I hate you hanging out with horrible people." She smiled once again as she poured herself a cup of coffee and mixed in a considerable amount of Bailey's Irish Crème. Jack had always sort of suspected that his mom had a drinking problem, and it seemed to get worse whenever the topic of his dad was brought up. She stirred the coffee tensely while speaking on edge, "how are you going to get there? Do you want me to give you a ride?"

Jack huffed in offense, "no! God mom, I'm almost 18, I can drive myself." He shoved another gargantuan mouthful of pancake into his gaping mouth, "I'll just take the Mustang Convertible."

"Well, then just make sure you can put up the top, it's supposed to rain out later today." Ms. Spicer got up from her seat to put her plate in the dishwasher. "So when is that pig expecting you?"

"He asked me to swing by early on in the day, so I should probably get out of here after I finish this." He placed his own plate next to his mother's and leaned in to kiss her goodbye. "I'll probably be back in about a week or so. And I'll call you from my cell when I get there." With that being said, Jack strode over to the base of the stairs, to where his duffle was waiting for him. Before he left for good, he went through one last mental check, to make sure he had absolutely _everything_ he would need. Once that was done and over with, he grabbed for the car keys, pulled his bag over his shoulder, waved to his mom one last time, and headed out the door.

Into the trunk his duffle went, only after he pulled his Mp3 player out, of course, and within only a minute's time, Jack was pulling out of the Spicer Mansion's driveway, and heading off in no direction in particular. He really didn't have anywhere he needed to be, as long as it was as far away from CY as possible. As he pulled up to a stop light, he plugged in his Mp3 and turned it up to one of his favorite songs, _Plug It In_ by the Basement Jaxx. When the light hit green he tore out of the suburban street like wild fire and sped his way onto a ramp, steering him on to the highway.

He was going about 95, the ever present image of CY gutting him over the money he didn't have, pushing him all the way. He had only been at it for about 15 minutes when the rain storm his mom had predicted began to take effect. It first came down in little trickling drops, proving to be nothing more than an annoyance, but it didn't take long for those few drops to multiply in number until they were coming down in sheets. Jack swore out loud, pressing the button that brought up the car's roof, but it didn't help much, because in the end, he still had to pull of the road, as he rain was making it far too risky to drive. It down-poured like that for nearly a half hour before Jack came to realize that this could take longer than he had originally expected. Slowly, he pulled back out onto the road and drove carefully until he found the next exit. He took it and soon found himself entering a small rural town. There were more trees than there were people, and the roads were mostly dirt, which was something remotely new to Jack.

"This is SO not cool. I just washed this friggin' car. Oh well, I don't mind givin' my baby another good rub down, and at least CY would never think of looking for me here." Coming to terms with the fact that he couldn't mosey around these roads for ever, Jack turned onto a very tiny, very muddy dirt road that lead deep into the forest. "Roads like this always lead somewhere interesting." The road was long and twisty and very hard to navigate through in the onslaught of pelting rain, but after quite some time of driving, the trees opened up into a massive clearing. At the center of this cavity in the woods stood a strangely elegant building. Its roof was a brilliant blue and was fashioned in the way the ancient Chinese would have built it. "Heh, maybe it's a 5 star hotel. I guess I could stay here until the rain lets up."

Jack pulled into the drive and scrambled out of the car and under the Hotel's front patio awning. Not thinking much at all, Jack pulled open the door and entered, expecting to see a lavish front lobby with welcoming faces and warm smiles. Instead, a dark and hollow hall was all that stood to greet him. _"Ok, so maybe this isn't a hotel,"_ he thought, while turning around to leave before anyone home realized his intrusion. Quickly, he reached his gloved hand for the door handle, but was stopped from leaving by a tiny voice that called out to him from the other end of the great hall.

"You there! Is Master Fung expecting you?" Jack turned just in time to see a rather small, rather bald boy sprinting toward him. He stopped only a few inches in front of Jack, while looking up to him in awe. "Ooh… you are a most peculiar looking man." The young boy in robes practically climbed all over jack while poking and pulling at him, "your hair is so red, and your face is so _pale_. Is that your original eye color? And what are those dark smudges beneath your eyes?" Jack figured the little boy was talking about the rain smeared eye makeup that was dripping down his face. "And these _clothes_! They are so very gloomy and­-"

If this kid went on like this any longer Jack was sure he would hurl him through one of the paper doors this place seemed to be riddled with. So, with little delay, he plucked the small boy from his body and held him up before him. "Whoa, hold on spaz, chill for a sec. Kay?"

"Omi," the small-fry chirped, looking very happy and very proud.

On the other hand, Jack just looked confused, "Come again?"

"My name is Omi, not "Spaz" as you say." Omi freed himself from the older boy's grip and leapt down to the floor with great ease. "My friend, what is your name?"

Something about this whole encounter left Jack feeling very awkward and out of place. He fidgeted back and forth before replying to the stranger named Omi. "Uh, my name's Jack Spicer. Listen, I should go, I thought this was a hotel and I was obviously mistaken. I still need to find a place to crash until the rain lets up, so I'll just show myself out." He spun around on his heals only to be turned back around by Omi.

"Why, then you should stay here! You will be our honored guest at the Xiaolin Temple!" This kid scared Jack to no end. He was too happy, or too chipper, or something. He was going to back down from the offer, but had no chance as Omi grabbed is hand and dragged him further back into the recesses of the temple. "I will show you to Master Fung, and he will allow you to stay, and we will have a sleeping party, and we will share tales of our very different life styles!"

As Jack allowed himself to get pulled along by this boy, he figured that the boy was talking about a _Slumber_ party and not a sleeping party, but he didn't care enough to correct him. Instead, he was more interested in the odd gecko like serpent that was slithering by them in the opposite direction. He was about to raise a question about the strange lizard when it spoke up, glaring at Jack impatiently.

"What, you never saw a dragon before? Sheesh! You outsiders are all the same!" As he slithered away on his legless body, he mumbled and grumbled under his breath about something having to do with stupid city slickers and whatnot.

Saying that jack was gawking after the dragon would be an understatement, because he found he was unable to speak for a good deal of time. However, once he regained control of his vocal chords, he shouted as loud as he was able to at the time. "Dragons aren't real! What was that thing!"

Omi chuckled and shook his head at his new companion's antics. "He is as he says. That is the temple's dragon and guardian of the scroll, Dojo. He was around when the Shen Gong Wu were first hidden by Grand Master Dashi, and serves as their protector." Ok, Jack wasn't even going to pretend like he knew what the little chrome dome was going on about, so he didn't. Instead, he let his jaw slack only a little and let out a disgruntled whimper of confusion. "I will explain everything to you during our Sleeping Party, Jack Spicer, but first you must meet Master Fung."

The twosome turned into a circular room with a very high ceiling and were met with at least eight old monks who sat around something that resembled a giant melting pot. Most of them were missing hair; either that or it was very scarce upon the tops of their heads but very abundant in other places. Jack noted that they all had extremely odd shaped heads, like gourds, and that he would rather die than have a head like that. Omi led him over to the monk with the least out of control head and began to introduce him. "Master Fung."

The man opened one of his previously closed eyes and looked over to the young monk, "what is it, young monk?"

"This is Jack Spicer; he has come to the Temple in search of a place to stay until the rain stops." Jack waved dumbly to the man, not knowing what else to do, "may he stay in one of the many empty sleeping cubicles for the night?" He looked on with big hopeful eyes, and made the puppy dog face, hoping that would seal the deal.

"Yes, Omi, he may stay as long as he sees fit." With a nod, he dismissed both Jack and Omi and they were free to head over to begin their '_sleeping party'._

Omi lead Jack through many hallways and alleyways before they made it to the building in which they were to spend the night. Once they made it inside, Jack looked skeptically at the old fashioned clock that hung from the wall overhead. "Is that the right time?"

First, the monk looked at the clock and then back outside and finally to Jack, "why yes, I believe that clock is right on the nickel."

"Dime."

"What?"

"Never mind."

The boy paused as they both took a seat on his tatami mat of a bed. "Why do you ask, my friend?"

What was with this kid? Why was he always so damn polite and proper? And what was the deal with his modern slang? It was like he'd been living under a rock all his life up until this point. "I just wanted to know cuz I thought it was earlier on, that's all." It was already 6:15… supper time. "Hey, do you know if you get service here?" Jack reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

"Absolutely not! We do all our chores our self. It helps in the training for becoming a Xiaolin Dragon." Omi looked appalled at the mere thought.

Jack shook his head, not wanting to have to explain the complexities of the _cellular phone_ to the very technologically impaired monk. "Never mind." Using his thumb, he scrolled down the menu until he reached his missed calls archive. Sure enough, there were at least 5 messages from Chase waiting for him. He listened to one after another, and all of them seemed to be practically carrying the same message. They all basically started off with a threat of some sort, followed by him insulting Jack, then there was another threat, then a reminder about how much money it was that he owed him, one final threat, a growl of exasperation, and then a furious hanging up of the phone.

After the run through of CY's messages was done and over with, Jack looked back up to the little monk, who was sat perched up on top of a hanging plant. Swiftly, Omi leapt down and sped over to immediate side. "How does such a small box carry so many voices?" He paused only briefly to run to the other side of Jack to get a better glimpse of the _"voice carrying box"._ "How does it do that? Is it… magic?"

The boy was invading Jack's bubble of personal space, and he didn't like it much at all. "Whoa, hold on, Opi. You need to step back and stop threatening the surface tension of my bubble."

Omi was now thoroughly confused on many different levels about many different things. First of all, did this _Jack Spicer_ really not know his name enough to confuse it with _Opi_? And since when did he live in a bubble? Omi couldn't see any bubble around him what so ever, but he figured it might very well be an invisible bubble of some sort, so he let it go. Misunderstandings such as these went on throughout the entire course of the night. I guess cultural gaps can sometimes prove to be too much even for a young, resourceful generation such as this. Omi had tried to inform Jack on the mysteries of the hidden Shen Gong Wu, but all he seemed to care about was there ability to possibly overtake the world one day. Aside from that, Jack didn't seem to care much at all, much less understand.

Four hours of the Monk's lecturing had passed, and it was already beginning to run into the later hours of the night. Each hour, on the hour, Jack would stop the boy from his rambling to check his new messages, all of them from Chase, all of them angry. At around 1 am Jack had had about all he could handle without being forced into a straight jacket, so he decided it was time to change the direction of the conversation. But first, he would need to call his mom because he had forgotten to do so earlier on.

The phone rang only for a brief time before his mom picked up, she sounded like your stereotypical, worried out of her mind, mother. "Oh Jacky! I was so worried, you didn't call me when you said you would and I thought you got yourself into a massive car wreck with and 18 wheeler or you drove straight off of a cliff or-"

"Mom! Cool yourself, I'm fine. Sorry about not reaching you earlier… _Dad_ and I were busy… uh, catching up. So, yeah, I should probably get back to him… we're… making smores…" Jack tried his best to end the conversation with his mom before it got ugly, because it always did for some reason, when it was about his dad. Jack was just too slow however.

"Is your father feeding you? Do you have enough money over there for electricity…and a bed?" Her voice was bitter and in unmistakable hatred.

Boy, though, Jack was sure glad she mentioned the whole _money_ thing. It gave him a more than brilliant idea for his stay at the temple and how he could use it to his advantage. He was having a bit of a money problem with CY… right? And he was never going to see these people at the temple ever again… _right_? So why not rob them blind and make off with the money before they knew what hit them? It was such a perfect plan, it _had_ to work; there was no way it could possibly fail. He would stay over different houses, with different people and act all "buddy buddy" with them, then, when morning brakes, he'll have already stolen everything to their name and be back out on the road in search of his next victim. This was great, he really _was_ and evil boy genius.

The only problem was finding out where these people kept there valuables. He decided to some how bring it up in conversation with Omi as stealthily as possible. "So… Opi-"

"Omi."

"Right, Omi. Being the amazing monk that you are, and living in this most _amazing_ temple, I bet your master lets you in on where all the valuables are kept… right?" Jack was so close, he could taste it.

Omi smiled broadly, obviously proud of his position as a monk at the Xiaolin Temple. "Well, my most correct friend, you are right. Master Fung _has_ entrusted me in the whereabouts of our temple's most _valuable_ possessions."

Jack was beginning to shake with anticipation, "so… like, what? Is it cash in a safe, or do you need to go through some out of control maze to get to it?"

"Oh no, Jack Spicer!" Omi whipped a tear of laughter from his eye, "you are a funny man. This temple does not carry large amounts of money. Our riches lie in something much greater."

The evil boy genius was sitting on edge, waiting for the answer, "so… is it in like stocks and bonds?"

Again, the monk let out a hardy howl of laughter. "Oh! You are most amusing. Of course not, our riches lie within our expertise in the Xiaolin ways."

Jack could have died right then and there, but he would not give up; he refused to. There was no way that a temple this luxurious and this far back in the woods wasn't hiding some sort of swag. "Well there _has_ to be some antiques lying around here, right?"

"Oh yes. There are many antiques here, some of which date back to the beginning of time itself, when Wuya was first trapped in the magic puzzle box by Dashi." Jack remembered hearing Omi ramble on about her for some time only a few hours back… something about her being some dark evil witch or some junk like that. Oh well, it didn't really matter, Jack was sure he'd _never_ meet up with the likes of her anyway.

What _did_ matter was that he now knew the whereabouts of the temple's riches. All he had to do now was wait for the place to go to sleep for the night and he would go off a'hunting for these illusive prized artifacts. Then he'd split once he got the job done and cart them all off to the Antique Road Show, trade them up for cash and hit his next target.

It took Omi 2 more hours to talk himself to sleep, but it was well worth the wait, because now Jack was free to roam the temple grounds himself and grab what he needed. He crept as quietly as he possibly could through the temple, managing to stub his toe only three times, which happened to be a new best for him. Jack wandered his way through the grand hall, then the kitchen, the circular room, the tea room, the gardens, and then the training area, while sacking up any and everything he found to be even the least bit valuable. After a few solid hours of fulfilling thievery, Jack felt he had overstayed his welcome and snuck back to his car without saying his goodbyes to his hosts. He figured they would find out soon enough that he had split, and he personally didn't want to be around when all the monks flipped a shit over their precious stolen artifacts.

In only a short time, he had loaded everything into the trunk of his car and was pulling out of the drive back toward civilization and the Antique Road Show. The rain had lightened up considerably to a slight drizzle, so Jack let the top down in celebration of his victory. As he sped away, he thought it was sort of weird. He could have sworn he would feel guiltier about steeling from these incredibly hospitable Monks, but whatever, maybe this would teach those over trusting _nuns_ not to mess with Jack Spicer: Evil Boy Genius.

---

Meanwhile, back at El Casa De CY, Chase was trying his very hardest not to lose his cool. How could he let himself get double crossed by a little snot like _Jack Spicer_? He had tried meditating to calm himself down, but that only left him deep in thought about how badly he wanted to massacre the teenaged snake. So, he resorted to something he barely ever turned to: the television.

Chase sat on his massive leather couch, surrounded by pillows beside him and cats at his feet, and flipped hastily through the channels. He never watched the television, because he believed it melted the brain… which it very well might, so he wasn't familiar to the programs running in the afternoon. He only rarely watched CSI: Miami, and maybe saw the new reality show _Honey, We're Killing the Kids_ twice, of which he found to be hilarious. But that wasn't the point; the point was that after much aggravated channel surfing, Chase stumbled across a program of some interest to him. The show itself wasn't particularly intriguing to the master of evil; it was more or less what was _on_ the show that snatched his attention.

There, standing with a butt-load of ancient artifacts, was the man he wanted strangle more than anything else in the world. Jack Spicer was standing lamely with both his hands outstretched, as some older woman forked cash right into his greasy little palms. The grin he wore made CY feel more than sick to his stomach. But it only took a short time of holding back vomit when Chase realized what a good thing this sighting really was. He now knew the whereabouts of the double crosser at hand and could begin his hunt. The bottom of the screen read: Antique Road Show is Broadcasting Live from Guangzhou China. That was right by the seaboard, it was obvious that Jack was just itching to get out of the country and out to sea, and there were only one real place Jack could head to next: Japan. It looked like Chase would have to bring his pocket translator for _this_ vacation.

xxxxxx

so, yeah… that's the end of that chapter. What do you all think? Send me reviews! Lots of REVIEWS! Muwahh Ha Ha Hahh! I'm done.


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